Information for patients

Behçet’s syndrome (now known as Behçet’s disease) is a chronic condition resulting from disturbances in the body’s immune system.

There is no test for Behçet’s disease at the moment. It is diagnosed by specific patterns of symptoms and repeated outbreaks of them.

There are several disorders that have patterns of symptoms that overlap with those of Behçet's disease. In the absence of a test to confirm Behçet's, this can make diagnosis quite difficult.

All the factsheets listed are available free of charge from the Society, and many can be downloaded here.

Headache is one of the most continual and troublesome symptoms in Behçet’s disease. Some patients are lucky and hardly ever get headaches; others have daily chronic severe throbbing headaches that are very disabling.